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FY 2016 Grant Announcement (Initial):

Digital Dissemination of Archival Collections

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) of the National Archives supports projects that promote access to America's historical records to encourage understanding of our democracy, history, and culture.

The following grant application information is for
Digital Dissemination of Archival Collections projects.

Funding Opportunity Number: DIGITAL-201510

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 89.003

Draft Deadline (optional): August 3, 2015

Final Deadline: October 8, 2015

NHPRC support begins no earlier than July 1, 2016.

Grant Program Description

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission desires to make historical records of national significance to the United States broadly available by disseminating digital surrogates on the Internet.

Projects may focus on the papers of major figures from American life or cover broad historical movements in politics, military, business, social reform, the arts, and other aspects of the national experience. The historical value of the records and their expected usefulness to broad audiences must justify the costs of the project. The Commission will not consider proposals that charge for access.

Grants are awarded for digitizing documentary source materials. Applications that do not include digitization of analog archival records will be considered ineligible. If you are working with born-digital records, please review the Access to Historical Records or the State Government Electronic Records announcements.

Applicants may digitize a single collection or set of collections for online dissemination. Such online publications should provide basic access to collections. Collaborations among repositories are encouraged.

In addition, applicants may undertake more complex descriptive work, such as document transcription, tagging, or geo-referencing, if these additional access points are justified by the value of the material and its expected users.

Award Information

Applicants may apply for funding for one to two years. Award amounts can range from $20,000 to $150,000. The Commission expects to make as many as 7 grants in this category, for a total of up to $500,000. Grants begin no earlier than July 1, 2016.

The Commission requires that grant recipients acknowledge NHPRC grant assistance in all publications, project websites, and other products that result from its support.

Eligibility Information

Eligible applicants:

Nonprofit organizations or institutions

Colleges, universities, and other academic institutions

State or local government agencies

Federally-acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups

Cost Sharing

The total costs of a project are shared between the NHPRC and the applicant organization.

The Commission ordinarily provides no more than 50 per cent of total project costs for Digital Dissemination of Archival Collections projects. NHPRC grant recipients are not permitted to use grant funds for indirect costs (as indicated in 2 CFR 2600.101).

Cost sharing is required. The applicants financial contribution may include both direct and indirect expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project. Indirect costs must be listed under the applicants cost sharing contribution.

Other Requirements

Applicant organizations must be registered in System for Award Management (SAM) prior to submitting an application, maintain SAM registration throughout the
application and award process, and include a valid DUNS number in their application. Details on SAM registration and requesting a DUNS number can be found at
the System for Award Management website at https://sam.gov. Please refer to the User Guides
section and the Grants Registrations PDF.

A complete application includes the Application for Federal Assistance (Standard Form 424), Assurances - Non-Construction Programs (Standard Form 424B),
a Project Narrative, Summary, Supplementary Materials, and Budget. Applications lacking these items will not be considered.

Application and Submission Information

All information necessary to apply is included in this announcement. If you need the information supplied in an alternative format, please call the NHPRC at 202-357-5010.

Applicants should follow the instructions on how to fill out the online forms and apply electronically using the Application Instructions.

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission requires that grant applications be submitted via Grants.gov. In the event that Grants.gov is experiencing technical difficulties that prevent submission, applicants must first attempt to resolve the issue with the Grants.gov Contact Center (800-518-4726). If Grants.gov cannot solve the problem, applicants may request an alternative. To make use of the NHPRC backup system, applicants must contact Jeff de la Concepcion (202-357-5022) no later than 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the day of the deadline with their valid Grants.gov Contact Center trouble-ticket number.

In order to ensure eligibility, applicants should first review the rules and regulations governing NHPRC grants under the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.

Applicants are encouraged to submit drafts by August 3, 2015, but drafts are not required. The drafts should be sent by email to the person listed under Agency Contact and should include a draft narrative and budget.

Project Narrative

The Project Narrative is a description of the proposal. It should be no more than 20 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with standard margins.

Projects in this program should result in broad public access to and enhanced understanding of significant primary source materials through the digitization of original documents.

Please organize your narrative in sections:

Begin with a brief overview of the project that explains the national significance of the historical materials and your methods. Describe the historical importance of individuals, events, developments, organizations, or places whose history would be documented by the project. Describe the collections or series to be included in your project, and explain how the dissemination of these documentary source materials will increase public understanding of national history and culture. Then, explain how you selected the materials. Indicate how researchers already have used these collections by providing citations. Demonstrate the demand for the materials by providing usage statistics over the past three years.

For the archival holdings of each repository involved in this project, describe the nature and scope of the holdings. Demonstrate that virtually all of the holdings are available to researchers and have online descriptions and that all new accessions receive a basic level of processing within a reasonable time.

Explain your methods for providing free online access to these materials. (The Commission will not consider proposals in this program where there will be a charge for access to the materials.) Discuss the state of existing descriptive material and how you will cost-effectively repurpose it to provide access to the digitized material (include relevant portions of the existing finding aids or indexes in your proposal's supplementary materials as well as a link to them if available online). Indicate the quantity of materials (estimate by sampling the materials). Be sure to demonstrate that your project has all necessary rights to make the collection(s) available online to the public. Restricted materials should either be excluded or make up only a small percentage of the materials.

Indicate which digitization standards you intend to use, and why. Describe what kind of hardware and software you plan to use or develop to make these collections available online. Explain whether you plan to use a vendor for any part of the project and the selection criteria you will use. If you plan to do the work in your repository, discuss what capacities you have and which you will need to develop (including personnel, training, equipment and software). Explain how your preservation plans will protect the digital surrogates beyond the end of the grant period.

Explain how your proposed method of digitizing and providing access will ensure that users understand the context, content, and structure of the collection. Show how existing finding aids or other descriptive records will serve as the descriptive metadata for the digitized materials. Describe what kinds of searches and display methods you will offer users and how these will take advantage of the existing information about the materials, as well as the information you intend to add, including transcriptions and annotations.

It is not required to enhance the existing methods of providing access to the digitized materials from what was available for the non-digitized collections. If you plan to do so, you must justify why it is necessary for these particular records and why it is likely to engage the public. If you do intend to enhance existing description by adding tags, metadata, or transcriptions, explain if/how you will engage the public in these activities. Do you have existing technology to implement such engagement? Do you intend to adopt technology new to your program? Do you plan to develop new technologies? The Commission prefers that any technologies developed be available to share with other repositories without charge.

Include a plan of work that outlines the tasks and project costs (both grant funds and cost sharing) associated with each activity. Indicate if you plan to present the results of the project in professional newsletters, conference presentations, and journal articles. Describe how you will market your program and its website with social media, websites, press releases, speeches, and other types of outreach. In your supplementary materials, include a detailed project plan that indicates which project staff and resources will be used to accomplish each of the stages.

For people named in the proposal, provide a narrative explanation of the skills and qualifications that will make this project successful. Describe staff experience in digitizing or supervising digitization projects or closely related experience. In the supplementary materials, provide a resumés of not more than two pages per person for all staff named in the project budget. For those staff members to be hired for the project, provide job descriptions, specify the qualifications that will be sought in candidates for vacant positions, and describe the roles to be played by all project staff, consultants, and contractors.

List four to six quantifiable performance objectives that will allow you and the Commission to evaluate the project following the submission of the final report. For example: how many digitized images will be available, what per-unit cost does the project achieve, how many people will hear presentations about the materials, and how many people will use the materials.

Project Summary

The Project Summary should be no more than 3 double-spaced pages in 12-pt type formatted for 8.5 x 11 inch paper with standard margins, and it should include these sections:

Purposes and Goals of the Project

Plan of Work for the Grant Period

Productsand Publications to be completed during the Grant Period

Names, Titles, Institutions,Phone Numbers, and E-Mail Addresses of the Project Director and Key Personnel (Please ensure that the project director listed on this summary is the same person listed in Section 8 (f), of the SF 424. If your institution requires a different contact person on the SF 424, please explain in one sentence.)

Performance Objectives

Supplementary Materials

Prepare up to 20 pages of Supplementary Materials to your Narrative, such as:

Résumés of named project staff (please use only institutional addresses and phone numbers) (required)

Position descriptions for staff to be hired with grant funds (required, if applicable)

If these materials are available on a web site, please provide the URLs.

Project Budget

You must submit a budget on the NHPRC Budget Form available on the Application Instructions page. Note that the form
itself contains additional instructions. You may include with your application a narrative budget supplement for budget categories that require further detail.
Provide specific budget figures, rounding to the nearest dollar.

Applicants will be asked to compute the project costs to be charged to grant funds as well as those that will be supported by the applicant through cost sharing,
which includes both direct and indirect expenses, in-kind contributions, non-Federal third-party contributions, and any income earned directly by the project.

If the project expects program income, it should be allocated among specific budget categories on the cost-sharing column of the project budget. The total amount
of expected program income should be reported on page 8 of the NHPRC budget form under "Project Funding for Entire Grant Period." The same amount should
appear on the Application for Federal Assistance, SF424, item 18f. Please use the narrative budget supplement to explain the calculation of the expected income and
its allocation.

All of the items listed, whether supported by grant funds or cost-sharing contributions, must be reasonable and necessary to accomplish project objectives, allowable
in terms of the applicable federal cost principles, auditable, and incurred during the grant period. Applicants should review the appropriate Office of Management and Budget circulars on cost principles.

Charges to the project for items such as salaries, fringe benefits, travel, and contractual services must conform to the written policies and established practices of
the applicant organization. In addition, successful applicants will be required to certify that they have adequate accounting and timekeeping procedures to meet the
Federal requirements.

Budget Categories

In preparing the budget, please follow the suggestions below in each of the categories:

Salaries: List each staff position and the full salary to be charged to the project and show the percentage of time each staff member will devote
to the project. Indicate which positions are to be filled for the proposed project and which personnel are already on the staff of the applicant institution. Grant
funds may be used to pay the salaries of only those individuals actually working on the project. You may count the time provided to the project by advisory board
members.

Fringe Benefits: Include employee benefits using your organization's standard rates. No separate benefits should be included for positions that are
computed at a daily rate or using honoraria.

Consultant Fees: Include payments for consultant services and honoraria. Provide justification for large or unusual consultant fees. Include
consultant travel expenses in the "Travel" category.

Travel: Include transportation, lodging, and per diem expenses. The NHPRC does not fund staff travel to professional meetings unless the travel is
essential to accomplish the goals of the project.

Supplies and Materials: Include routine office supplies and supplies ordinarily used in professional practices. Justify the cost of specialized
materials and supplies in a supplemental budget narrative.

Services: Include the cost of duplication and printing, long-distance telephone, equipment leasing, postage, contracts with third parties, and
other services that you are not including under other budget categories or as indirect-cost expenses. The costs of project activities to be undertaken by each
third-party contractor should be included in this category as a single line item charge. Include a complete itemization of the costs in a supplemental budget narrative.

Other Costs: Include costs for necessary equipment above $5,000, stipends for participants in projects, and other items not included in previous
grant categories. The NHPRC does not provide grant funds for the acquisition of routine equipment such as office furnishings and file cabinets, but we may allow for
the purchase of archival equipment, such as shelving units, and technical equipment, such as computers and peripherals, essential for a project. Include technical
specifications for equipment over $5,000 in a supplemental budget narrative.

Indirect costs: As indicated in 2 CFR 2600.101, NHPRC grant recipients are not permitted to use grant funds for indirect costs; however, a grant recipient may use indirect costs for cost sharing.

Submission Dates and Times

Draft (optional) Deadline: August 3, 2015

Final Deadline: October 8, 2015

Applications must be submitted electronically by midnight Eastern Time on October 8, 2015.

NHPRC support begins no earlier than July 1, 2016.

Deadline Policy: Given that technical or administrative difficulties with Grants.gov may periodically delay the timely submission or receipt of applications, the Commission staff will make provisions for the receipt of such applications past the established deadline. Under these circumstances, applicants with technical or administrative issues related to Grants.gov must contact NHPRC staff as soon as possible, but no later than by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the published application deadline. Applications that fail to meet deadlines for reasons other than those noted will not be considered for funding.

Application Review Information

The NHPRC staff will acknowledge receipt of the application soon after we receive it. The following evaluation criteria and weights will be used by NHPRC staff and
other reviewers to form recommendations.

Criteria for Digital Dissemination of Archival Collections Projects

The national significance of the records to be published online. (40 percent)

Ability to complete the project's proposed objectives, judged by the qualifications of the staff, prior experience in digitization, and the reasonableness of the work plan and budget (including cost share). (30 percent)

The efficiency of the project, as judged by the likely output versus costs (cost per unit). (15 percent)

Effectiveness of the dissemination plans for the digitized materials and project methods and of the long-term preservation plans for the digital surrogates. (15 percent)

Application Review Process

After submitting a proposal, do not discuss the pending application to the NHPRC with any Member of the Commission. Commission Members must ensure fair and
equitable treatment of all applications and do not discuss proposals with individual applicants.

State Boards
Your State Historical Records Advisory Board may evaluate the application on technical merits as well as its relation to state plan priorities.

Commission Staff
Approximately 3 months after the submission deadline, the Project Director receives blind copies of reviewers' comments and questions from the Commission staff. Applicants have an opportunity to expand on the material provided in the application, clear up any misconceptions, and generally strengthen the proposal before the Commission meeting. Staff makes overall recommendations to the Archivist, who chairs the Commission, based on the appropriateness of the project in meeting the Commission's goals, the proposal's completeness, conformity to application requirements and overall eligibility, and answers to the questions letter.

The CommissionAfter reviewing proposals, the comments of peer reviewers, the applicants' responses to the reviews, and evaluations by the Commission staff, Commission members
deliberate on proposals and make funding recommendations to the Archivist of the United States who, as Commission Chairman, has final statutory authority and selects
award recipients. Throughout this process, all members of the Commission and its staff follow conflict-of-interest rules to assure fair and equal treatment of every
application.

Award Administration Information

Notification

Grants are contingent upon available appropriated funds. In some cases, the Commission will adjust grant amounts depending upon the number of recommended proposals, priorities, and total budget. The Commission may recommend that the Archivist approve the proposal and extend an offer of a grant with applicable terms and conditions, or it may recommend rejection of the proposal.

Grant applicants will be notified within 2 weeks after the Archivist’s decision.

Successful applicants will receive an informal offer of award and be required to verify their acceptance of general terms and condition, and complete a statement on their Financial Capability and Accounting Systems. Once these are received and reviewed, the NHPRC will issue an official award notice.

Administrative Requirements

In order to ensure that you can manage a grant, applicants should review the Federal grant administration rules and regulations governing grants from the NHPRC listed in the Administering an NHPRC Grant section.

Reporting

In most cases, award recipients will report on their performance in narrative reports every six months and submit financial reports once a year.